Why Are You Alone

Sonic screeched to a stop in a deserted town square, his kicks trailing a cloud of dust. Doors stood open, cars abandoned with the engine running, shopping bags dropped on the ground with produce spilling over the abandoned sidewalk. Sonic’s ears twitched, trying to pick up some evidence of life or clue of what Egghead had cooked up this time.

Okay, quick list: Find Eggman, foil his evil plan, rescue everyone, find Shadow, apologize. Good plan.

Nothing of note immediately presented itself, so Sonic started a slow (for him) search of the town, racing down each street in an erratic pattern. At the southern edge of the town proper, he found what he was looking for.

Sonic burst through the chest of an Eggpawn that had been herding crying and terrified townspeople into a drop ship at gunpoint. An ecstatic scream rose from the small crowd. “Hold on a minute, folks!” Sonic rubbed his nose and winked. “You’re in good hands now.”

The other robots turned their attention to him, but he was a blur. Once every one of them lay in a smoking pile of scrap, he surveyed the scene. This can’t be everyone. The grateful townsfolk surrounded him, all talking at once. “Slow down! One at a time, please.” He grinned and held up his hands. “I’ll find the others, I promise.”

“Making make promises you can’t keep, rodent? Not very heroic of you, to lie.” A voice blared over loudspeaker. Sonic’s ear twitched. Welp, there’s Robuttnik. One item checked off the list. Sonic parted the crowed, who were getting riled again, and stood between the freed townsfolk and the Eggmobile hovering menacingly in the air.

“What’s your deal this time, Egghead?” Sonic bent into a lunge, stretching his legs and hips. “I figured you’d still be licking your wounds from the beating you took a few days ago.”

The roof of the Eggmobile slid back so that the mustachioed villain could lean down and glare at him. “Ah, as I hear it, you’re the one who’s been taking a pounding.”

“Wh-wah?” Sonic stuttered, surprised, leaving him open to Metal plowing into him from behind. Sharp metal talons gripped the back of his neck and pressed his face into a long slide across the pavement of the street.

Sonic flared his quills and slammed his elbow backwards, bashing Metal’s head. The pressure on his neck did not relent, but the pair flipped. Sonic now on top, he curled his legs over his head and then brought them back down quickly, jumping to his feet and whipping Metal over his head and onto its back on the pavement. Metal lost his grip but his fingers glistened with Sonic’s blood.

“You’re not on my list today, bag of bolts, so let’s make this quick!” The pair traded a few quick blows and then Sonic dashed off, leading the killer robot away from the civilians. Pulling out ahead, Sonic hit four left turns around a block, trying to catch Metal from behind but found himself alone again. Crap! Back to civies, or-?

“Where are your friends, Sonic?” The blue blur looked up, giving Eggman an irritated smirk. “Why are you alone?”

“After the pantsing last time, I told them not to waste their time. I can more than handle whatever you’ve tossed together this time. Now tell me where you’ve taken the rest of this town’s people or I’ll show you how I make egg salad!”

“Toss my salad, would you? I didn’t think you had it in you.”

Sonic sputtered and gagged. “Dude, gross!” What the actual hell?

Metal Sonic punched him across the face from the side, right where Shadow had got him earlier, and he cartwheeled through the air into a propane tank next to a hardware store. He balled, but was still blown back across the street as the contents ignited, into a bakery of all places.

Okay, this was getting a little annoying. Not nearly as fun as he’d hoped. Sonic really needed to stop letting his guard down. Sonic stood and dusted loose flour off his chest. Definitely going by Tails’ for a shower after this. His ears canted back and forth, search for any sign of Metal.

“Oh, and I would thank you to not harass any more fine citizens of the Eggman Empire.” The loudspeaker was blaring again. Sonic emerged from the store front, his grin colored with irritation. “After recent relaxation of our immigration policies, whole villages such as this one are knocking down my doors to join in mass. I, as the magnanimous and caring dictator that I am, couldn’t possibly refuse their requests.”

Sonic rolled his eyes at the hovering Eggmobile. “I’m sure.”

Curling, Sonic charged up and launched at the Eggmobile….only to pass right through it. Landing he uncurled and spun, watching the hologram pixilated and disappear, leaving a small girl in its place.

“Great…You, again.” Sonic crouched, ready to react to whatever was looking to surprise him next.

“You seem tired, Sonic. Have you been busy today?” The AI considered him with red eyes.

“And I still have time on my calendar to short-circuit you! You should be flattered.” His grin grew, but he could feel his eyes weren’t in it. Oh, hey, he was well into the second item on his list. That cheered him up a bit.

The girl was unmoved. “I feel compelled to warn you that you are about to be in a lot of pain. I am giving you a chance to surrender now to lessen your suffering.”

“You should know by now, Sage.” Sonic thumbed his nose. “I’m a glutton for punishment.” Amy said his penchant for throwing himself into traps was ‘unhealthy’.

“You are correct. I am aware.” She spread her hands, soft palms up. “Please remember. This did not need to happen.” She flickered and disappeared.

Haha! A fight coming with a content warning? This was going to be good. His eyes dart around, looking for his metal replica. And for whatever Sage was talking about...He needed to remember to save some fun for Knuckles. Maybe Shadow would appear at a particularly dramatic moment. That would be pretty hot.

A gentle shimmer passes through the air. Nearly imperceptible. Like the difference in the light between noon and a minute past noon. A single dead bulb in a string of five thousand Christmas lights. Sonic notices immediately. Never, for as long as he lives, he’ll ever forget that feeling.

Oh.

The reaction is immediate. Sonic freezes. His pupils shrink to pin-pricks. His body tightens, his quills flare to full mast and his heart hits a rate normally reserved for past the sound barrier. The Chaos energy within him goes wild.

The fear is overwhelming,

but

the rage is stronger.

Metal rushes him from his blind spot. Sonic blocks the grasping claw with a forearm, blue lightening crackling through his quills and along his arm, and twists his wrist to grab the offending appendage. He slammed his doppelganger into the ground with enough force to dimple the asphalt with a crater.

Sonic loosened his grip just enough to slide his hand to tighten around Metal’s wrist joint. Pulling the arm taunt, he stomped his foot against the shoulder joint with enormous force. The arm snapped free in splash of shrapnel and arcing electricity.

Swinging the severed limb like a baseball bat, Sonic rounds on a second Metal rapidly approaching from his six. He grand slams the aggressor into the pharmacy down the block where it broke through the window, blew through the stock shelves, and exploded into a rain of red cubes against the far wall.

There is no time to gloat. Sonic ducks as two more Ruby clones of Metal try to strike him. The original Metal grasps at his ankle with his remaining hand. Sonic dropped his improvised weapon and curls into a ball. Vrreeeeeeeeee! He kicks up a storm of energy as he tears through those two in a wide spiral, trailing red cubes, and another four trying to approach. Racing down the street, he leaves a deep trench in the asphalt in his wake.

This was pointless. Every smashed Metal clone would respawn over and over again. Sonic needed to find Eggman. If he even was here. Stop it. Focus. There was a way out. There was always a way out. He just had to find it.

He amended his earlier list: Find Eggman, beat him to a pulp, find the ruby, destroy it. Once and for all, destroy it before it could be used to hurt anyone else ever again. Sounds like a plan! Good plan, great plan. NO notes.

Sonic darts through the vacant streets. Every corner and alley seem to have metal claws waiting for him. He bids his time, smashing where he must, but otherwise avoiding needless confrontation. As much as he’d love to trash Metal all day, he’d lose this war of attrition. His power was limited, the Ruby’s was infinite boundless.

The town is silent and…too large. Sonic straightens his route, barreling ahead without deviation. He should have left the town in an instant and be plowing through unkempt forests now. He looked closer at the buildings. He saw the same pharmacy, the same gas station, the same diner, the town hall with the belltower. Their order was randomized, but the town was on repeat.

Well, that wasn’t good. He was on a treadmill. Sonic smirked. He’d yet to run into a treadmill that could keep up with him. He picked up the pace.

The street was smearing together at the edges of his vision, but he could tell the fidelity of the illusion was starting to take a hit. The diversity of repeated buildings became laughable. Ahead of him, the continuity of the horizon faltered and bits of it started to suddenly pop into existence like a poorly optimized video game.

Sage messed up giving him space to run. It was weird he hadn’t caused a boom yet, though. He should have by now at this rate of unimpeded acceleration.

Suddenly, the ground gives out from under him. The surface tension of the water hits him like a brick wall. He shoots into inky black liquid, the asphalt liquefying. His momentum carries him deep, deep down until the light from above dims to nearly nothing.

Not good.

It’s an illusion, he knows this without a doubt. It’s not real. It is real. Not this time. His instinct is to accept the illusion, go limp and wait for the reset, but Sonic fights it. He was in the real, thisisn’treal thisisn’treal!

(thisisn’treal thisisn’treal thisisn’treal thisisn’treal thisisn’treal thisisn’treal)

Just breath. Five count in, five count out. No, shit, don’t breath! Don’t do that, he’ll drown*.* Got to hold the air in!

Tensing, Sonic focused his chaos energy (a lot easier said than done for him) and pushed it into the air around him. It’s sloppy and uneven. Knuz would give him a ribbing for sure. The dark water crackled and glitched with bright flashes of ruby light. He can see bursts of the ruined street flashing before being thrust back into darkness. A little more power ought to do it.

His lungs do not like the sudden shuttering of his mouth. It takes a lot of air to keep his legs going. All of him aches. Go to get out of this fast.

Eggy picked a really bad time to mess with him.

A cold, metal claw grips his ankle and yanks him downward, out of the aura of blue he’d been making. Sonic releases a few bubbles in surprise before bashing himself free with his other foot. Flailing, Sonic tired to ascend, but in the murk is was hard to tell if he was making any progress. The light he’d been making with his energy was fading. His heart rate, without pavement beneath his feet, was decreasing. Not good!

A metal body tackled him and wrapped its hard arms around his chest. Before Sonic could pry it off, it squeezed with incredible pressure, forcing Sonic’s lungs to contract. Slamming a hand over his mouth wasn’t enough to keep the air from escaping in a burst of bubbles. The tiny bits of buoyancy quickly escaped into the darkness.

Another hand grabbed his ankle. Gritting his teeth against the growing pain in his air-starved muscles, Sonic gave off a blast of energy and broke free.

The relief of freedom was short lived as the desire to breath rapidly became intolerable. Sonic flailed his limbs, unable to tell which way was up. A uniform gloom, speckled with hundreds of red lights surrounded him. His vision was blurring and he hardly saw the Metal clone coming at him head on. He weakly tried to dodge, but it slammed into his chest, knocking the last of the air out of his lungs.

Involuntarily, his diaphragm forced his lungs to expand to draw in something, anything! Dark water rushed in, setting his lungs on fire with the intrusion. His hands and feet had gone numb. He barely felt the many claws digging into his flesh, dragging him down down down into darkness.

---

The stilted, fridged air of the ARK burned his throat and the water vapor he exhaled condensed and settled as ice on the massive window through which his scarlet iris’s beheld the blue marble slowly turning below. He reached own and gently scratched the ice free with an ungloved claw. The crystals sublimated into the air before they hit the ground.

The Space Colony ARK had been locked down for years. All life support mechanism disabled and the only systems active were gravitational controls and pressurization systems. And the external defensive systems. It was Shadow’s desire that the facility remain an uninhabitable memorial, locked away from any and all intrusion.

He pulled the green Emerald from his quills. It glowed dully, mostly spent from his jaunt up here. He returned securely back. Its rate of recharge would be much slower this far from the planet. In his last trip to space, when he’d destroyed the Death Egg, he’d used the explosion to propel him back towards the planet. There would be no such help this time.

How far could he get with what little energy he had left? Surely close enough to get into a decaying orbit, but if the entry was too parallel to the atmosphere, the friction from reentry would rip him apart and he’d be months in recovery. And that was ignoring the risk of another memory loss event.

Shadow sighed. He had not put nearly enough thought into this trip to ARK. He had panicked. Plain and simple. Rouge hadn’t been…available to help and he didn’t know how many of his hiding places Sonic knew about. So that left the ARK as the only place to which Sonic could not follow him.

Pathetic

Yes, he was pathetic. Shadow flinched. He looked at his hands and then at his reflection in the glass. He was normal, then why-?

This fear was beneath him.

He was the Ultimate Lifeform. He was not afraid. Not of Sonic, not of himself, not of anything.

Shadow touched his temple. Where was that ringing coming from? The air pressure was too low here to carry sound very far.

It was this place. He hadn’t been here in years, not since the Time Eater incident. Not since he faced his maker and his powers had expanded. He’d been victorious, but he’d been changed, something inside him advancing. Evolving. Progressing.

Shadow had allowed his chaos reserves to get too low. Over something so stupid-

Running from object of his desires? Disgusting.

He was disgusting. He could see blood on his muzzle in his reflection. He hadn’t cleaned himself at all when he was trying to attend to Sonic. He touched his belly, finding dried fluids there starting to flake in the cold. Ugh, and he’d gone and let Rouge see him like this. The pads of his feet were going numb bare as they were on the cold metal floor. She’d never let him live this down.

He could not fucking believe Sonic. How could he try to pull something like this? Lying to him? How long was he going to wait to tell him? The idiot!

Revenge, the wages of betrayal.

Shadow would make him pay. Sonic wouldn’t hear the end of this. He’d- He’d….How could Sonic do this to him? Did he really mean so little to Sonic? Was this recoverable? How could he trust anything that blue fool ever said again?

How fucking dare he! Sonic should consider himself lucky that Shadow even looked at him, let alone wanted to be with him. That he would deigned to degrade himself.

It was only right to force himself on Sonic.

Shadow blinked. The ringing was getting louder. What? No, that’s-

Take what he wanted. Break it. Reshape it.

Sonic was so eager. So regretful. Full of shame and eager to please. Shadow could use that. Get what he wanted. Anything he wanted. It wouldn’t be that hard, even. The hero was begging for it.

He didn’t- That’s not- Shadow reached a hand into his quills and gripped his skull. Something was wrong. His thoughts…they were getting away from him. Why was this happening again? He’d been better. He hardly heard anything in months. This wasn’t like him. He was better than this. He would never hurt Sonic. He was above these notions.

Everything was beneath him.

Yes, that’s right. He had to be better. The world was counting on him. It needed him.

It was his purpose.

What…?

To subjugate.

No.

To dominate.

NO!

To control.

Please, no!

To make ready the way.

Vanguard

Shadow gasped. He was on his hands and knees, his ears filled with an intense ringing. It felt like- Almost like- This had been a bad idea, coming to the ARK. He needed to leave before….before- It didn’t matter, he needed to go. Get back, restore his chaos energy. Push all this back down!

As long as you live, so shall I.

Chaos Control!

Shadow emerged in freefall. The planet spread out like a blue and white tapestry below him. He was too high up to be able to decern much detail. At least fifty miles above sea level. He closed his eyes. He was too tired to do the proper math, but he knew had at least twenty minutes or more before he hit the surface. Plenty of time for a brief bit of unconsciousness.

His body was nearly frozen, his chaos reserves were spent, and the revolting thoughts he’d harbored in the ARK clung to him like cobwebs. His body relaxed into the forces of the plummet.

He wanted to see Sonic. He wanted that optimistic fool to tell him everything would be alright. To wrap his cream color arms around him and hold him tightly. To look into his verdant eyes and know that someone cared about him, that someone wanted him for him. To lay together somewhere secluded, under the full force of the sun. And just be. No fighting, no words, no expectations, no responsibilities. Just them, together.

But Shadow had hit him. Hit him hard. Sonic had lied. And Shadow had hit him.

Maybe that’s why Rouge said he was sensitive. The only responses in his repertoire were cold indifference, violence, or flight. All distancing tactics. Sonic was all about approaching, and Shadow only knew how to retreat. Shadow didn’t deserve Sonic. The thought made his eyes burn and his chest ache.

He needed to talk to Sonic. He wanted them to be fine. Maybe they could be even. Sonic lied, Shadow hit him. Start over back at zero. But he hadn’t hit Sonic because he lied…

Shadow opened his eyes. The air was getting warmer. With a deep breath of thin air, he drew in traces of ambient chaos energy. He could work with this.

He’d misjudged. He was much higher than fifty miles. The plummet took a lot longer than he estimated, but it would be a waste of chaos energy not to wait until nearly the last second. Moreover, a vast ocean was quickly rushing up to greet him. Not the best landing zone…This is what he got for teleporting blindly.

A few thousand feet above the waves he blipped out of existence and landed with a splash. Surfacing, he rubbed at his mouth, trying to wash away the blood caked there. The taste of Sonic lingered, sweet and earthy. The salt water burned his nostrils, raw as they were from exposure to space and a dive through the mesosphere and thermosphere.

Threading water, he pulled his Chaos Emerald from his quills. It was spent, nearly grey now. He removed the inhibitor ring from the hand that held the Emerald and flinched at the sudden roaring sensation. His reserves refilled, but with a hallow, self-consuming feeling.

A wave crashed over his head and he went under. Disoriented, he kicked back to the surface. The emerald was still clutched tightly in his hand, but his inhibitor ring was not. Shadow’s breath hitched. He dove down, looking for a glint. The water was uniformly gloomy and nondescript. Fuck.

With more force than was prudent, Shadow pushed his chaos energy into the Emerald, jumpstarting it back to brilliance. It drank deeply from him and he cut it off before he passed out. Still, he was lightheaded and fighting back a wave of exhaustion.

There was no time for that.

Diving, Shadow snapped deeper and deeper in quick succession. The salt water burned his eyes, but he kept them open and searching. His darkvision didn’t work as well in an ocean full of microscopic particles.

There! An old glint reflecting the green flashes of his snaps.

Damn it was falling fast. It took two more snaps for him to snatch it up. By now the pressure was extremely painful. The nitrogen in his blood were leaving solution and ripping his veins and muscles apart. It was not a good idea to go from the near vacuum of space to several hundred feet underwater in such a short period of time.

Tapping into the Emerald, he appeared back in his cave and collapsed to the stony ground in a soaking heap. The sudden change in pressure wracked every cell in his body and he curled in on himself. The Emerald fell from his hand and clattered to a rest away from him while he hastily reattached his inhibitor with shaking hands.

For a while, there was only pain.

Slowly, Shadow remerged into his own mind and body. He really had to stop falling from orbit. It was a really bad habit of his.

He rolled onto his back and covered his face with his bare hands. What a ridiculous fool he was. In his quills, his phone vibrated with a notification. That would of course be Sonic looking for him. Shadow was spent, exhausted, tapped out. He’d likely need to rest his body for several days to recover fully.

Could he go that long before he talked to Sonic?

Groaning, he lifted. His phone continued to vibrate as more messages loaded in. He squeezed salt water from his quills and forced his body temperature rise for the second time that day. Mostly dry, but very sticky from salt and other sea particulates, he located his gloves and shoes and dressed. Sonic’s were missing, so he was probably out there running all over trying to find Shadow. He retrieved his Emerald. What a fucking mess.

This self-pity was a waste of time. Time to get this over with.

Shadow retrieved his phone. His brow scrunched in confusion as he saw that he had no messages from Sonic, but many from Rouge. Wait, Sonic’s phone was broken. He couldn’t send him messages even if wanted to. His eyes found the discarded electronic near his chair. That meant Sonic had been harassing Rouge this whole time trying to reach him. Another thing Rouge would make sure Shadow paid for a long time.

Every thought fell to the background as Shadow began to read.

Rouge’s texts just directed him to her voicemails. The normal group chat had Rouge asking Sonic how he was fairing (?!?), followed by confusion from Amy, who had just recently landed in Soleanna for the meeting with the human governments.

[Amy Rose]: What are you talking about? What happened?

[Rouge]: didnt u get alert? eggman atk.

Rouge attached the location.

Shadow bowed his head. While he’d been feeling sorry for himself, Sonic was out there being a hero. What was wrong with him?

Curiously, there was a new group chat, missing only Sonic. Shadow opened it. The first message from Tails stopped his heart.

[Miles Prower]: dont tell sonic. teh artifact robotnik dug up has similar enrgy signatur as Phantom Ruby!!!!!! where is he? is he safe?

Shadow body shook. It couldn’t be true.

[Rouge]: sonic is figting the dr right now!!!

[Amy Rose]: who is able to support him? I’m back in the air in thirty minutes but I wont be back to station square for at least eight hours

[Rouge]: i cant reach shdow. Kunx and I are on route after delay

[Miles Prower]: omega is dissembled. Im reaching out local resistance unit, but they’re fifty miles from that town

[Amy Rose]: so Sonic is all alone!?!

Shadow’s vision blurred. The Phantom Ruby back in play. A molten sensation gathered in his chest and poured throughout his body. He grit his teeth so hard his jaw ached. The screen on his phone cracked from the force of his grip.

He sacrificed his despair on the alter of his rage. His hate for the Doctor could serve in place of the hate he felt for himself for allowing Sonic to rush into danger alone.

Wouldn’t it be better to feel nothing at all?

Shadow appeared on a deserted town square with a blast of dark green light. His stomach churned, sick with exhaustion and overuse of chaos energy, but he ignored it. The late afternoon sun cast a red glow over the eerie stillness.

“Sonic!” He bellowed, his dry throat cracking painfully. Silence was the only answer.

Ignoring his faltering body, Shadow activated his air shoes and raced through the town. He found numerous signs of a recent battle. Wrecked store fronts, ruined robots, torn up pavement. But no Sonic. The ambient chaos energy was in turmoil and heavily suffused with Sonic’s signature color. But no Sonic.

Shadow finally slowed when he heard the approaching thrum of a helicopter. His hands were balled into fists so tightly that the leather of his gloves was threatening to split.

Again. It happened again. He had let Sonic get taken, again.

You kill everything you love.